Gaar Applied To Deny Rollover

GAAR applied to deny partnership asset rollover

In Ceco Operations Ltd. (2006 TCC 256), the Tax Court of Canada applied the general anti avoidance rule (GAAR) to a partnership asset rollover. A sale of a business contemplated two years before the transactions was structured via a partnership with the purchaser in 1998. Ceco rolled business assets to the partnership under subsection 97(2) for cash and a partnership interest. The purchaser injected cash equal to the value of Ceco’s partnership interest and the partnership used the cash to invest in preferred shares of a company; that company and Ceco were owned indirectly by the same holding companies. The court said that the series of transactions was a patent abuse of subsection 97(2) and that GAAR applied to deny the partnership asset rollover.